Activist Benjamin Nowain arrested at Shasta County Board meeting
Newly appointed Board Chair Chris Kelstrom called for Nowain’s removal after the community member spoke out from the floor twice during another speaker’s time.
“New year, same old shit,” was how community member Dolores Lucero described today’s Shasta County board meeting during one of her usual fiery public comments. Her statement came not long before activist Benjamin Nowain was arrested for disrupting the meeting after he yelled out twice from the chamber floor.
The board’s newly appointed chair, Chris Kelstrom, who took over the leadership role from Supervisor Kevin Crye today, called for Nowain to be removed. Kelstrom’s instruction to law enforcement came shortly after he issued a single warning in response to Nowain’s first brief outburst from the floor. When Nowain responded that he wouldn’t leave the meeting, Kelstrom called a recess and Deputy Clerk of the Board Stefany Blankenship told the public to clear the room.
A sheriff’s deputy working security in the chamber responded to Nowain who was seated in a chair in the back of the room. He asked Nowain whether he was aware that he could face arrest under Penal Code 403 if he didn’t leave the room. Nowain acknowledged that risk, but said that a command for him to leave the room would be an unlawful order, since his speech had not risen to a level that would disrupt the meeting. He was arrested without incident about ten minutes later.
Here’s what happened
Nowain’s alleged disruption occurred today when he responded from his seat to a public comment being made at the dais by community member Leslie Sawyer. She’s an activist with both Moms for Liberty and Mountain Top Media. Sawyer was in the middle of rebuking Supervisor Matt Plummer when Nowain yelled out to her from the floor, demanding that she provide evidence for her claims.
After Nowain’s first comment, Sawyer yelled back, “it’s my time, keep your derangement to yourself!” Kelstrom then told Nowain to “quit yelling out from the crowd; that’s your first warning.” Nine seconds later, Nowain yelled out the same phrase to Sawyer again and Kelstrom immediately responded, “that’s it, let’s have him removed please,” gesturing to a Sheriff’s deputy in the room. “You get one warning … and you’re gone,” Kelstrom added. “You had your warning, you need to leave the meeting.”
Nowain responded with quiet defiance: “No, sir.”
In total, his alleged disruption of the public meeting lasted less than 30 seconds from his first words from the floor to Kelstrom’s call for his removal.
First Amendment rights
Nowain’s arrest may provide another test for First Amendment rights in Shasta County. His wife, Jenny O’Connell-Nowain was recently convicted by a Shasta county jury for disrupting a public meeting in Nov. 2024. The actions she took before her arrest were more significant, involving her rising from her seat and walking up to supervisors then sitting on the floor of the board chamber quietly in response to former board chair Kevin Crye’s demands.
O’Connell-Nowain’s defense in court, provided pro bono by private defense attorney Michael Borges, referenced a California Supreme Court precedent known as In re Kay. That court ruling indicated that noisy activities by the public do not necessarily constitute a disruption to a public meeting.
“Audience activities, such as heckling, interrupting, harsh questioning, and booing,” the ruling reads, “even though they may be impolite and discourteous, can nonetheless advance the goals of the First Amendment … A cogent remark, even though rudely timed or phrased, may ‘contribute to the free interchange of ideas and the ascertainment of truth.'”
Like the First Amendment, state law also guarantees certain free speech protections for attendees of public meetings. Under California’s transparency law, known as the Brown Act, the public’s right to attend and speak out during meetings must be balanced by the rights of others to participate in public business without disruption.
The penal code states that disrupting a meeting means engaging in behavior that “actually disrupts, disturbs, impedes or otherwise renders infeasible, the orderly conduct of the meeting.” Disruptions that are determined to have impeded the orderly conduct of a meeting may lead to the removal of members of the public, the law says. In those cases the room should not be cleared unless the removal of the single individual is insufficient to restore order.
California law also requires that Brown Act rules be enforced equally during public meetings in order to prevent what is known as viewpoint discrimination, or silencing of the public’s voice in response to particular perspectives.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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you maga lunatics are all “pro free speech” until it’s someone you don’t like, aren’t you?
Pretty much hit the nail on the head.
Nice to see citizens speaking out against the Tres Pendejos who are running this county into the ground. How many more citizens need to leave the county or refuse to move here before the Maga folks see the light? Supervisor Plummer has been penalized for not toeing the line of those using the MAGA playbook to govern this county. And people wonder why doctors, vets, and other educated professionals are fleeing the county or refusing to move here. We all should be embarrassed to tell others we live in Shastanistan.
Save it Brad. No one is embarrassed to say they live here. No one from here would ever say they would leave here because of a politician. This is NorCal baby. Stop crying.
Loud and proud, eh?
But of course.
Do you get out much? Like outside of Shasta County?
Be honest now.
Tommy boy, save the TDS, no one is going to leave this awesome place. Maybe you’d want to leave this world if you’ve ever watched monotone Ben’s mind-numbingly boring rehashes of local politique updates.
Ben just won his arbitration regarding his whistleblower complaint that led to his firing allegedly at the direction of Kevin Crye. He gets his job back, back pay and interest along with the door opening for a civil lawsuit against county and Crye. Let that numb your mind NC!
If Kelstrom wants to keep meetings orderly, good for him. However –
The minute he, or another Supervisor, start interrupting a citizen who is speaking (which I believe occurred during public comment regarding assignments) then he no longer gets to proclaim interruptions are worthy of removal.
And the minute he allows another attendee to interrupt a speaker, he demonstrates his selective use of discipline.
Which means throwing an attendee out for interrupting isn’t actually an act of discipline to create order. It is a blatantly biased use of power. Remove the personalities, analyze the actions we see with our own eyes, and the math is clear that this was simply a power move.
Dolores is correct.
I cannot fault anyone for asking the question: Is Mr. Nowain a political activist, or is Mr. Nowain an unintentional standup dark-comedy comedian? Certainly, his conduct does not lend credibility to whatever cause or causes that he is championing. For the matter of what cause or causes that Mr. Nowain is championing, can Shasta Scout inform its readership with specificity what that cause or those causes are?
“Activist” sounds better than “disgruntled former employee”
In fact the so called computer genius, our election denial conspiracy propaganda pusher ROV, (who got shot down by the SCBOS while begging for more money to campaign) actually called Benjamin in for IT help during his 2 item on the ballot chaos session in Nov. Yep, the same guy MAGA had arrested yesterday, crossed the isile to help the the far-right conspiracist run his election. Go figure…
Perfect comment.
To be clear: perfect comment by Harry, not Christian. Make America Great Again. Hopefully we can keep the vibe going for another 250 years, but unlikely.
if you’re ignorant, sure
Lmao,
For a non-Maga, Harry, you sure do get a lot of them praising you.
I believe Mr. Nowain asked for proof. That is all.
Excellent article, Shasta Scout! I once overheard a MAGA, clutching her pearls outside the chambers, ask Sheriff Johnson why I could be arrested for calling her dear leader an adjudicated rapist, 34-count felon, a wannabe fascist, who is harming the citizens of Shasta County. Johnson simply stated, “free speech.” Yes, “All government is a mess. Democracy is always messy. It’s meant to be messy because smooth, thoughtful, precise, effective government leads to dictatorship.” — Michael Capuano. Just watch the video of the House of Commons, the foundation of American democracy! And if you study history, white slave-owning “founders” of the privileged class often came to blows in chambers. The question here, as Scout’s article addresses, is whether Benjamin’s simple, short, and civil question of asking for examples rises to the level of conduct that would threaten Leslie Sawyer’s right to free speech? And does the SCBOS, as required by law, censor speech evenly? I say no. But I doubt, if called, I’ll be called to sit on the jury…
I have known Ben for 25 years, and altho we are not close, and I haven’t seen him in 8, maybe 10 years, I have always found him to be a decent, kind, and thoughtful individual. IDK what this was all about, but what I do know is that Redding has been taken over by ‘right wing’, delusional, fox propaganda watching morons, and after 30 years there, I left, and will not return. The entire city is a f****’d up mess of delusion, and the only advice I would offer is for the humans who still live in reality, to leave! These people want to support a sick, cowardly, pedophile, and cheer him on, that is on them, but it speaks more to their lack of morality than anything else, and as for ‘moms for liberty’, that is hypocrisy at its peak!
Yet, it was ok for Marjorie T Green to yell out to president Biden..,” liar, liar”.. during his speech… nothing happened to her… Under this administration, rules for some, no rules for the orange 🍊 🐷 followers..
Ben Nobrain was interrupting a fellow citizen during her time to publicly address the Board of Supervisors. He is the one attempting to stop free speech. Sorry you don’t understand that.
Exactly! Through all the smog and bullshit at the liberal left likes to throw out there, the truth is simple.
It’s 2025. There are a million ways Ben Nowain could dispute whatever Leslie Sawyer said without shouting her down during her brief allotted time at a public meeting. Allowing him to do it allows everyone else to do it. We’ve seen where that leads at supervisors meetings.
It’s important to be even-handed, but good on Kelstrom for setting an early tone. Hecklers do not foster public deliberation.
Wait! It’s 2026! Probably even a few more ways for him to get the word out thanast year!
It’s 2026 sweetie.
I hope that we will get the run-down on what Sawyer was claiming about Plummer…
Free speech does not give you the right to disrupt public meetings. Ben Nowain and his justice involved wife are despicable.
What do the Nowains get from disrupting these meetings? Everyone does not agree with the Nowains and citizens deserve for the people’s business to be open to them instead of being shut down anytime the Nowains disapprove. The speaker was interupted twice by Nowain. What about her (board meeting sanctioned) free speech rights?
I noticed you didn’t mention the context of the case Nowain cited in defense of his actions. That case related to protestors interrupting a public official who was giving a speech.
Nowain’s actions today involved twice interrupting a member of the public during their open comment time, which is a different scenario altogether.
One of the officers brought that up to him during his protest and he was momentarily at a loss for words. I don’t think he genuinely understood the difference, but maybe he does now.
Yep!!! Sometimes you have to explain the law to people. Starting with the likes of Scout
Very interesting…
Just like how people had to explain the law to good ol’ Reverge Anselmo?
Who cried and decided to spend millions of dollars trying to destroy our county to get payback?